Mary Watson, B.A. English 2009, M.A., 2010

As a senior at UD, Mary was torn between her passions for lyric poetry and for rhetoric
and her lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer. While the study of the art of persuasion
truly fascinated her, Mary was inescapably drawn to its practice. Just two weeks after
completing her master's thesis on rhetoric in Shakespeare's Sonnets, Mary began law
school at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia. Mary graduated
from GMUSL in May 2013, and she now works as a law clerk for Justice Jeannette Theriot
Knoll on the Louisiana Supreme Court-the highest civil law court in the United States.

"It really did not take long for me to realize what an invaluable education I received
at UD. I was using the skills I learned as an English major almost as soon as I started
law school. UD's English program is unique in the country, perhaps the world, in that
our English majors spend so much time with poetry, both lyric and epic. The technical
training in lyric analysis that I first received in Junior Poet and further honed
in later classes provided me with the best preparation for my future career. The myriad
papers I wrote on lyric poetry habituated in me the ability to focus on the small
details and to use those details to develop a persuasive big picture reading of a
text. That is a skill I use every day when I'm reading and interpreting case law."

Mary's love affair with the great works she first experienced at UD did not end with
her decision to practice law. Since leaving UD, Mary delivered a conference paper
at the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) 2011 Annual General Meeting, and
JASNA published that paper in its journal, Persuasions On-line, on Jane Austen's two hundred thirty-sixth birthday.

News

The University of Dallas has announced the recipients of the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award -- the highest honor the university can bestow on its alumni. The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated sustained and distinguished accomplishments and contributions to any field of human endeavor.

Its connection to UD helps the alumnus-owned Lamberti's fulfill its three pillars: local, tradition and famiglia. Lamberti's was the vendor for this year's Groundhog "Party in the Park" celebration; additionally, Lamberti's is looking into carrying Due Santi Rosso wine from UD's own vineyard on the Eugene Constantin Campus.

The University of Dallas community gathered on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, for the formal blessing and opening of Cardinal Farrell Hall, named after our former bishop of Dallas, previous chancellor and longtime friend of the university, Kevin Cardinal Farrell. The opening of the new student-focused building marks the completion of one of several capital projects, a part of a broader institutional effort to transform the university's Irving campus.

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